Malcolm Kemp

In my young days (so many years ago!) "As Prescribed" with Dudley Savage was very popluar on Sunday mornings. He was a much better player than many other theatre organists of his generation and never really got the recognition he deserved. I suspect the secret of his success/popularity was partly that he didn't try to be too clever. Malcolm

Very sorry to hear this sad news. I have an idea that he had been organist at High Wycombe parish church and also at St Margaret's Westminster but I may be mistaken. Malcolm

I'd never actually looked in detail before; I suppose you see what you think you are seeing. However, I was doubly sharp when I looked at it this morning! I susepct that there a number of churches using that setting where the organist is quite capable of making the organ part sound as if that is what they are actually playing. Malcolm

A friend of mine teaches at Dover GS for boys and his father says they have a very good pipe organ. I hope to ifnd out more over the weekend. Malcolm

Although I have no first hand knowledge of it, I believe there is an organ (probably a pipe organ) in the (state sector) Priory School (now a tertiary college speciallising in the arts) in Lewes, East Sussex. I recall Kenneth Waller, mentioned in a posting above, doimng page turning, putting candidates at ease &c., in RCO exams at one time. I got the impression that he was/is an extremely nice person. Malcolm

Perhaps the odd and the disagreeable - in the widest sense of the meanings of both words - find their way into church because they can't fit in anywhere else and nobody else wants them. I think of one person who is a total misfit in the real world and finds it difficult to keep a job yet they crop up at church events all over the place, playing leading roles. One priest I know once preached a sermon saying that Christianity is not a religion for successful people but one of tranformed failure. Yet it can be very depressing at times, especially the thought that we may all be as bad as each other. Some secular committees I have known have been every bit as bad as anything you would find in church but I hate committees anyway. There is a well known tale - possibly mythical - of either Norman Cocker or J Varley Roberts giving a severe reprimand to a lady who was joining in the psalms when she shouldn't have been. No doubt it has also been attributed to others. Just had an awful family Service - made worse by people accusing me of appearing to enjoy playing Shine Jesus Shine and that Sortie in E flat by you-know-who. Proper choral service this evening with Wood, Ayleward and Vittoria. Religious rant over! Malcolm

I have been told today that Volume 2 of Jon Laukvik's treatise on Historical Performance Practice in Organ Playing (which covers the German romantic period) is being issued in an English translation. Carus apparently has allocated it a catalogue number but it is not actually published yet. I await it with eager anticipation. Malcolm

We sing a carol called "In the darke midwinter" by Harold Bleak. Once on an Easter Sunday morning we did the Vaughan Williams Te Deum in place of the final hymn at Mass and the congregation moaned that they couldn't join in; could we please go back to Stanford in B flat which they all knew and could join in! Malcolm

Perhaps this is caused by organists being nocturnal creatures (someof the postings being made well past my own bedtime) and this excellent site being so popular that many people view it late in te evening. Malcolm

It is worth mentioning that the tune usually sung to "Take my life" was formerly attributed to Mozart but is not actually by him. It comes from the, once very popular, "Twelfth Mass" where it is the main theme of the Kyrie. Up until the 1970s St Bartholmoew's Brighton had a repertoire of two Mozart Masses, neither of which was actually by Mozart, although both were quite good settings, irrespectective of their composers. One was the so-called "Seventh Mass in B flat" published by Novello as an English Communion Service (and very nice it was, too) and the other was "Communion Service adapted from Mozart's Twelfth Mass by Edward Husband, Vicare-Designate of Holy Trinity Folkestone" although I don't think he ever took up that appointment. All copies of the latter seem to disappeared off the face of the earth, which from a collector's point of view is a pity. In these more enlightened days St Bartholomew's does most of the Masses actually composed by Mozart (although KV140 in G is dubious) and they sing them in the language that the people in Heaven actually understand. Malcolm PS The 7th Mass in B flat is a quite different setting to KV 275 in that key.

OLD English Hymnal No. 200 tune called "Psalm 42" composed or adapted by L Bourgeois. Malcolm PS On Low Sunday this year we sang as a Communion motet a rather nice, short work (really an Easter carol) by Charles Wood called "O for a Lay". This was good discipline for my tenors and basses; apparently one famous cathedral choir removed it from their repertoire because their tenors and basses couldn't cope with it.

I think I have been confusing the issue in that there appear to have been two Mulders - K J and J - with J probably being the son of KJ. The item I am partcularly interested in is "4 improbisations" by J Mulder. One of those pieces is on a fascinating you-tube clip. That is in the Hartog on-line catalogue but is currently unavailable. I do have an unfortunate habit of wanting to get hold of very obscure music. Malcolm

Indeed, I learned with George Austin on that organ in the 1960s and have helped with the music there in more recent times. Presumably Noah didn't have the heating bills they now have although they do have the advantage of having a treasurer who is also the D-of-M. Malcolm

Thanks, Cynic. I was wondering only a couple of hours ago whether you had moved to anothet planet as we don't seem to have heard much from you recently. Meanwhile (see my posting on "Lest we forget" the monsoon season continues in Brighton and I am looking for a forum where I can get advice on building an ark (64ft, of course). I've not seen rain like this for years. Malcolm

Brilliant idea; many thanks. Unfortuntely the RCO Library only has one Mulder item and that is a different person. Malcolm

Does anyone know how to get hold of copies of organ music by the Dutch composer Jan Mulder, please? Contacts with the publishers/stockists in Holland produce no results even when approached by bona fide music trade firms in the UK. Malcolm

Peter Thanks for that. I agree that the performance on your video is infinitely better than last night and I would love to keep a copy of it on-line somehow, What I can't find anywhere on line is any indication that the score is commercially available. Can anyone help of that please? Actually, the more I hear it the more I like it and it has a memorable tune. At my church on Remembrance Sunday we have a tradition of doing the Blatchly setting with three singers, organ and trumpet and this is always very popular with our conregation. Before the service this morning I played Nimrod and then "Keep the home fires burning". To date, nobody has complained! Perhaps I've just got no proper taste! Malcolm

Having just watched the Festival of Remembrance from RAH, does anyone know the composer of the setting of Binyon's "For the Fallen" which Ms Jenkins has just sung? Corny, but nice! Am I alone in thinking that, in her day, Vera Lynn was a better singer than Ms Jenkins? Malcolm PS Common Worship might call this the Kingdom Season; in Brighton at the moment it's more like the Monsoon Season!

I chose to use my own name on this, and similar Boards, to which I belong on the basis that if I am going to say something I feel it inappropriate to hide behind a nom de plume. This is arguable and others, for varying reasons, may have different thoughts on the subject. A friend who is not an organist recently viewed this site and pointed out to me that, for reasons of personal security, it is inadvisable to have ones name and date of birth on the same web page so I have now delated the latter. I am mindful of another friend who used his "real" name on this Board but who terminated his membership because someone was mis-quoting his postings in order to compromise his work as a diocesan organ adviser. This is a risk one takes when using ones own name. Some of us greatly miss his pithy and sometimes deliberately provocative postings. I can't help thinking that much more to the point are the qualifications, experience, knowledge &c., which qualify some of our more forthright, but less generally well known, members to express their very firm opinions. Someone expressing very definite views about, say, the composition of the mixtures on an organ somewhere in another far corner of the world may be a very experienced and world famous organ expert for all we know; on the other hand they may know nothing whatsoever about organ design and not even be able to read music. Perhaps that is part of the fun of it - reading the views of other members, forming our own informed views and then discussing (or even gently arguing about) them as friends with a common interest. Malcolm PS When I did try to "Google" one regular contributor all I could find was a whole lot about horticulture. Is this the same person, I wonder?

Can't help with the hymn or psalms - the chants could be identified fairly easily if one took a bit of time but I don't recognise the hymn tune. The responses are by Kenneth Leighton. Malcolm

Welcome to Ron Bayfield who joined the Board on 1st November. I have known him for many years and he is, or has been, associated with many musical organisations over the years. Before Allegro Music took over this enormous task he maintained the distribution list for the Organists' Review. Malcolm

In jest (well,at least partly) - I thought the service wasn't valid unless incense was used? More seriously - at a church known to at least one other member of this Board an, admittedly extremely poor, pipe organ was rendered unplayable because when a major redevelopment of the church crypt was made the architect managed to put the main heating duct right next to the air inlet for the organ blower. Malcolm

Apparently Bishops currently tune the fine 3 manual Hunter organ in St Andrew's Worthing which Comptons rebuild circa 1961 Malcolm

Whilst my personal preference would be the Masses of Mozart, Vittoria, Byrd, Schubert &c., (but not Harwood in A flat or even Stanford in B flat Masses) if you are going to have congregational settings you are extremely lucky if you can still do the Martin Shaw Anglican Folk Mass; at least he had the benefit of a decent librettist. (From what I have seen of it in the press the new, as yet unpublished, English translation of the Missale Romanum is more in the style of old-type pre-Series 3 Anglicanism.) Not sure what all this has to do with pipe organs, though! Malcolm

The main thing I have learned from this thread, and indeed from some others, is that used in the right way by the right people You-tube can show you wonderful playing of wonderful music on wonderful organs and this is, in itself, a great education. Thanks to Pierre, Nigel and others for taking the time to search out the links that they are continuing to post here. Like some others, this is a thread well worth continuing with and some of the disagreements between members can be educational, fun and irritating all at the same time! Blessed are those that don't have to spend time preparing service music (or, if you live in Wales, sermons!) for tomorrow and therefore have the time to search out these links! Malcolm